Europa i Sverige och Sverige i Europa? Policyförmedling och lärande genom skolinspektion

Abstract

The interplay between European inspection ideas and the Swedish school inspection is analysed using policy documents and an extensive number of interviews with key actors to trace what European ideas and practices influence, and to what extent they shape, two major current Swedish inspection models (regular supervision and quality audits), or whether they are shaped by Swedish notions of inspection. Swedish school inspection has been influenced particularly by England, Scotland, and the Netherlands, where civil servants at the inspectorate are important policy brokers. Sweden acts as an inspiration to nations that recently installed school inspection; its inspection models, design, and methods are of interest. The Standing International Conference of Inspectorates (SICI) is a dominant arena for policy brokering for Sweden. Inspection policy and practice akin to Swedish conditions travels, but is indigenised. A European community of practice and policy space through which education can be governed is promoted through SICI.